good things take time

Month: March 2017

Ok so all my seeds for lettuce’s, sweet peas and stocks have been planted into propagator’s on my window ledges and are already sprouting after 1 week!

In the background we have completely dug over the garden in readiness for the raised beds in which we will plant straight into the ground carrots, onions and kale. I bought a small plastic outdoor propagator to try and grow tomatoes but I have my doubts as there is very little light in our back garden. I also sourced some beautiful old railway sleepers for the raised beds and whilst clearing the rubbish on our cliff we found some metre long slabs of slate which will look great on the top of the sleepers!

Sweet peas and Stocks will provide the house with fragrant cut flowers during the summer and with the veg we should have a plentiful supply (fingers crossed) of salad crop.

I have read about the dreaded carrot fly. Apparently my neighbour informs me that they can only fly 30cm off ground level so if you plant carrots on a raised platform carrot fly won’t be an issue!

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Starting seeds is the inexpensive way to grow more of your favorite plants. Here’s what you need to know for success.

Seed-Starting Essentials

Starting seeds is the inexpensive way to grow more of your favorite plants. Here’s what you need to know for success.

Starting plants from seed has many practical benefits: You save money, get a head start on the growing season, and choose from varieties far beyond those locally available. By starting seeds, you also get to experience the joy of watching a seemingly lifeless seed sprout into a living plant.

A seed is a plant embryo and its initial food supply is stored within a protective coating. Seeds remain dormant until a combination of moisture, temperature, air, and light triggers germination.

Seeds have different shelf lives. Some will remain viable for hundreds of years, whereas others may only store well for a couple of years.

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In my first post I outlined the original vision on Time Consumed that was coined in 2004. Time Consumed was a notion that raised the question of work to live, not live to work. The increasing need of instant gratification i.e. see now, buy now and the appetite for materialistic objects with reports suggesting were leaving people more and more unhappy and unfulfilled.

Now we are entering a period of an attention based economy; constantly multi-screening between mobile phones, TV and laptop screens. The human capacity to apply concentration to a chosen subject, and our ability to understand detail is being significantly challenged.

A piece of very interesting information a colleague told me today was that when we read or learn from screens, the part of the brain which the information is processed isn’t actually the learning part of our brain. The main library of our brain where we truly store learnt information is filled from doing / making things and reading from text! Also that every person on average in a certain developed country spent 10 hours a day consuming screened media.

Scary.

Time Consumed believes that we need to respect our land, what is given to us by mother nature. Help one another out with time (FYI time is now reported the biggest currency over money). Happiness is found in contentment and feeling fulfilled.

My reason for this blog is to expand on this thinking, putting into practice and learning skills that I do not have and should. I hope to connect with like minded people and learn from each other how to make the world a better place and to give back what mother nature so kindly provides.

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I spent a good 3 hours this afternoon learning the fundamentals about what and how to plant in my rocky shade garden.

I wrote down the names of shade loving plants that I liked. A Problem came when I looked to search and buy these plants – nowhere to be found! The plants I wanted to create a container garden (see instagram post to the right) were Lysimachia Midnight Sun, Oxalistriangularis and Begonia Sutherlandi.

However I did come across Suttons which is a great seed company in the UK. The website allows you to filter your choices by the amount of light (shaded) and what to sow now. Looking at all that was available I must admit I was quite jealous of the availability of plants that loved “full sun” However after more researching I realised something quite magical. That the conditions of my garden, both front and back are the same as a woodland. As I soon as I realised this thoughts of ferns, snowdrops, bluebells starting appearing in my mind! Then I have the wonderful thought of – can I take cuttings from my local woodland and propagate (I think that is the correct term) into my own garden?

As for vegetables, I found that the best plants for shade growing are carrots, kale, lettuce, Peas, Potatoes, Spinach. These are my beginning choices and will get chance to start on them next week as I leave for Wales on Saturday, yeah!